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Matt Damon May Star In Catholic Church Sex Scandal Film

Matt Damon will have a ton of options after Elysium hits theaters. He’s developing a film with Boston buddy Ben Affleck about criminal Whitey Bulger, and he’s mulling over new projects as we speak. Currently he’s getting a lot of attention for the strong thematic elements in Elysium, and the material that may or may not be hard to swallow for some folks. Now it looks like Damon may have another controversial film on his hands.

Earlier today it was announced that Damon is the front runner to star in a new film that will open up about one particular Catholic Church sex scandal that took place in Damon’s home of Boston. While it isn’t certain who Damon will play, the film is said to be a highly charged drama and is aiming to be in the same vein as All The President’s Men.

“Center on the journalists at the Boston Globe — Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer and Matt Carroll, Spotlight Team Editor Walter “Robby” Robinson, Special Projects Editor Ben Bradlee Jr. and Globe Editor Marty Baron — who discovered and exposed that Cardinal Bernard Law, America’s Senior Catholic Prelate, was protecting priests accused of assault, by moving them to different parishes, where they offended again.”

This report won the group of journalists a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 and since then the project for the film has been developing for quite some time. At the time Globe editor Martin Baron said: “There was just a real determination to tell the whole truth, not just a piece of it, not just a slice.” Currently the script is being worked on by Josh Singer, who’s popular for his work on The West Wing, and more recently Fringe.

Even though the film doesn’t seem to be in pre-production, DreamWorks has found it to be a promising project and is backing the film. At the time it was announced that DreamWorks was interested, it was also reported that a big A-list movie star was currently looking at the film. Looks like it’s a no-brainer that it’s Matt Damon.

It looks to be right up Matt Damon’s alley. Damon, who usually goes after films with a message, was in the preachy Promised Land late last year. As far as the Catholic Church sex scandal it would make sense for Matt Damon to take interest. Although the scandals that the Catholic Church covered up received a lot of attention in the media, there hasn’t been a film since 2008’s Doubt that has touched on the controversy surrounding the Church. Either way this film will surely get people talking in favor of it or against it.